LTE
While cellular technology advancements aren’t a major focus of this blog’s coverage area, leaving LTE off this year-end list wouldn’t make sense. The technology, described as delivering a 4G network (despite the technical incorrectness of that terminology), delivers faster speeds for mobile users. That’s good news for consumers, considering our ever-increasing appetite for mobile data (40 exabytes by 2014!), especially mobile video, which had already reached 90 petabytes per month in February. According to Cisco, mobile video will grow at a compound rate of 131% between 2009 and 2014, a report found, thanks to streaming videos from Netflix, YouTube and others.
Says Michael Manzo, chief marketing officer for subscriber optimization software Openet, “Long-term evolution (LTE) or 4G is absolutely the best mobile innovation of 2010. With wireless networks stretched to capacity, this new infrastructure will increase speed and capabilities of mobile devices, as well as provide some relief to existing networks. Though the technology was discussed some in 2009, LTE has become a vital component of the year as wireless operators made large scale deployment announcements, and 4G devices started becoming available to consumers – expect to see even more LTE news in 2011.”
What’s more, LTE will succeed over WiMax, says Forrester’s Charles Golvin. “2011 will be the year that the WiMAX window of opportunity slams shut, as LTE establishes itself as the default next generation network technology, becoming even more dominant than GSM.”
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